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Documents: Woman who sold Evan Ebel gun should've known he was felon

By Sadie GurmanThe Denver Post

Posted:
03/28/2013 09:50:49 AM MDT

Updated:
03/28/2013 11:48:48 PM MDT

Attorney, Normando Pacheco, tries to hide his face March, 28, 2013 at the courthouse in Arapahoe County. He declined to comment after the short hearing for the woman accused of buying the gun that authorities say was used to kill Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements. (THE DENVER POST | RJ Sangosti)

Stevie Marie Vigil. (CBI - Denver)

A Commerce City woman knew — or should have known — that Evan Ebel was a felon who could not own firearms when she bought him a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun this month, according to court documents released Thursday.

Although Stevie Marie Ann Vigil, 22, is charged with providing Ebel the gun that authorities say killed Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements, nothing about her set off red flags for employees at High Plains Arms in Englewood, where she bought the weapon. Court records show she bought the gun between March 6 and March 13.

"We have been made aware that High Plains Arms sold the weapon in question used in these crimes," shop owners said in a statement. Employees said Vigil passed a background check through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which determined the sale was legal, the statement said.

Vigil has been charged with unlawful purchase of a firearm, a Class 4 felony. In orange jail scrubs, she made her first court appearance Thursday before Arapahoe County Judge Alex Bencze, who kept her bond at $25,000. Her attorney, Normando Pacheco, declined to comment.

Vigil's relatives were perplexed as to why she would buy the gun for Ebel, 28, a member of the 211 Crew prison gang who was released on mandatory parole Jan. 28. Investigators said Ebel also used the gun in a shootout with Texas sheriff's deputies on March 21 before one of them fatally wounded him. Ebel also has been linked to the March 17 killing of Domino's Pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon, 27, whose uniform investigators say Ebel used to disguise himself at Clements' front door. Denver police have not said what, if any, ballistics evidence they have tying him to the case.

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A "straw gun purchase" on behalf of a felon seemed out of character for Vigil, who was in college studying nursing, said her aunt Francis Gurule. Vigil has no criminal history, according to CBI records.

"She's always been a good girl," said Gurule, who was "speechless" upon hearing the news. "I couldn't believe it."

But, Gurule said, she lost touch with her niece about a year ago. Relatives closer to Vigil, including her sister, said they didn't want to get wrapped up in the "drama" by talking about her case.

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